PRESENTATION — U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Develpment district and regional administrators were in Steubenville Wednesday to talk about the $500,000 Choice Neighborhood grant awarded to the city and Jefferson Metropolitan Housing Authority. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — North End residents gathered Wednesday to celebrate what they hope will be a new beginning, a $500,000 federal grant to kick off a planning process aimed at reinventing their neighborhood.

Steubenville is one of the nine communities across the nation awarded a Choice Neighborhood grant, a U.S. Housing and Urban Development initiative aimed at helping communities find ways to revitalize distressed neighborhoods. For purposes of the grant, planners will key on an area stretching from University Boulevard to Washington Street, and state Route 7 to Highland Avenue.

Over the next two years, they’ll be mapping out a strategy for change, paying special attention to the three components HUD has specifically said must be addressed — health, people and community.

“I’m a lifelong resident of this city and a lifelong resident of the North End,” 4th Ward Councilman Royal Mayo said. “This will be transformational.”

Diane M. Shelley, HUD’s Midwest Regional Administrator, said it’s a long-term commitment.

“It doesn’t happen overnight, but cities weren’t built overnight,” Shelley said, adding HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge “believes housing is more than four walls and a roof, that economic development and community planning is an aspect of providing good housing to a community — that’s why the grant was designed.”

The idea is for the people who actually live in the North End to make decisions about what they want to see happen.

“At the end of two years, all the information we’ve compiled will be put into a transformational plan,” Jefferson Metropolitan Housing Authority Director Melody McClurg said. “It will be presented to HUD. If they accept our transformation plan, that’s when the influx (of grant money) will come in. It’s a huge job.”

City Manager Jim Mavromatis told the crowd it was a great kickoff to 2023 and it’s “going to be a good year for the city.”

“This is a remarkable shot in the arm, to get a half-million dollars to get started (with the planning),” he said.

Mavromatis said a strong transformational plan could open the federal funding coffers.

“My job is to make sure we apply the right way, spend it the right way,” he said. “I’m hoping we’ll be the benchmark for the rest of the country to see — how a small, former steel mill town and what it’s done.”

Jefferson County Commissioner Tony Morelli, a member of the JMHA board before his election, said positive things are happening in Steubenville and Jefferson County.

“This is a huge shot-in-the-arm,” Morelli said. “The buzzword these days is transformational: This planning grant will help city leaders, the people who plan, to transform this area of town.”

He said McClurg’s mantra from Day 1 has been, ‘this is about everyone having a say in how we do this.’

“If you were here four or five years ago and see the changes that have been made by Mel and her staff, it’s unbelievable. And just the excitement of the residents,” he added.

Shelley said a Choice Neighborhood plan “has to be inclusive, has to include every aspect of the community to make sure they have a voice so that the plan serves them in the end.”

She said there’s no guarantee additional federal dollars will be waiting at the other end of the planning process, “but there is a possiblity, because in your planning process you will take into consideration other funding opportunities available from HUD and other federal agencies. To the extent we can collaborate with other federal agencies to bring development into Steubenville, we will do so.”

She also said good housing “defines a community’s hopes, dreams and future.”

“Good housing can only exist when you’re in a strong community — that’s what this grant is all about,” she said. She warned the group the easy part was getting the grant.

“Now the hard part begins, you have to develop a plan that’s acceptable to us, but you can do it,” Shelley said. “This isn’t just about us dropping off a check and walking away. This is about us working with you.”

McClurg, meanwhile, recalled when she joined JMHA four years ago, “We had the motto, ‘teamwork makes the dream work’. That motto holds true today.”

“When the city of Steubenville and JMHA decided to apply for Choice Neighborhood planning grant, a lot of people questioned it…if we should be doing it, if it was too big of a long shot,” she added. “I guess it was a long shot. but we are Steubenville and we knew we deserved this opportunity…We know that we’re a community that has fallen on hard times, but we dream of the change to come here. Today, that dream is becoming a reality.”

McClurg said community meetings will begin in February.

“This is our opportunity to make changes we’ve all said need to happen in the North End,” she said. “HUD has granted us this opportunity so we can finally get moving in the direction we need to go.”

She said there are “lots of changes to come.”

“It’s an opportunity to change everything — to change housing, the whole community. To get people the needs that have been missing here.”

Also on hand was Sara Keeler, district director for U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, who said the Congressman is “really looking forward to what’s to come.”

Steubenville Urban Projects Director Chris Petrossi, who worked with McClurg to develop the application, was not able to attend the presentation.